ISELIN -- State Sen. Ray Lesniak today said he will push for a hike in New Jersey’s relatively low gas tax — calling it the best way to pay for transportation projects — and he is looking for support from the incoming governor.

The Union County Democrat said he will file a bill for the legislative session in January to "gradually and incrementally" raise the tax, perhaps by a penny a year.

Tariq Zehawi/The RecordA gas attendant at a Shell station at Hasbrouck Heights earlier this summer.

But he will only move it forward through the legislative process — asking other lawmakers to vote for it — if Gov.-elect Christie changes his stance against raising the tax.

"At some point in time, sooner rather than later, we will have to increase the gas tax to fund our transportation needs," Lesniak said. He made his comments at a New Jersey Business and Industry Association forum in Iselin and in a separate interview. "I don’t want to have a bridge fall down before we get this going."

Christie reiterated tonight that he will not raise the gas tax and
chastised Lesniak and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) for
their timing. He said they didn't call for raising the gas tax when a
Democrat controlled the governor's office for the past eight years.

"They're saying to me, 'OK Chris, you have to raise the taxes now
because we didn't have the political courage to do it,'" Christie said
in a radio interview on New Jersey 101.5 FM. "Now all the sudden they
want to drop it in my lap, and say, 'You have to break your no higher
taxes pledge for that.' No, I'm not gong to do it."

He said he is "not convinced" there is no other way to replenish the
Transportation Trust Fund, but did not identify the other options he
would consider.

But Lesniak said he thinks the next governor will come around.

"At some point in time, it will be necessary," he said.

Only a handful of states — Alaska, Georgia and Wyoming — have state gas taxes lower than New Jersey’s 14.5 cents-per-gallon levy, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, D.C.

The cost of a gallon of regular-grade gas in the United States rose from about $1.19 in August 1990 to about $2.60 now, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Transportation Trust Fund, which is used to pay for transit projects, is burdened by outstanding debt and is expected to run out of money by 2011.

Lesniak said the increase is the best way to pay for upkeep, noting a large chunk of the tax is burdened by out-of-state drivers who gas up in New Jersey.